“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”
J.K. Rowling
There is truth behind the statement “Failure leads to success”. Failure provides valuable lessons that can be used to continue toward a goal. Failure itself is not what leads to success, but how you recover and move forward from failure. Recognizing the meaning of failure builds resilience and provides courage to try again. Overcoming failure can ultimately lead to success, as it has for many others. When you get to the top of the mountain, you’re able to see all of the obstacles you overcame to get there.
Evidence of Beneficial Failure
Elvis Presley
One of the most famous musicians of all time, also known as “The King”, experienced plenty of adversity before his success. Elvis was a truck driver before becoming an international sensation, and after his first show was told that he should stick to driving trucks. He persevered through and worked on his passion, resulting in Elvis becoming the legend we know of today.
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling is one of the most successful authors of all time. Joanne Rowling is famous for creating the most popular book series’ of all time, Harry Potter. Rowling has created many other works, and is one of the richest authors in the world. Before writing the series, she was an unemployed single mother after mourning several losses of her loved ones. She explains that she was severely depressed and living off of welfare benefits in Britain. Her persistence and determination turned her life around into who she is today.
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. He didn’t let this failure stop him from pursuing his passion, and continued to work hard. Michael Jordan is now known as the best basketball player in history, has won olympic gold medals, and 6 NBA Championships among other accomplishments. Imagine if he listened to everyone that doubted him and gave up on his dreams.
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”
Franklin d. Roosevelt
You never know unless you try. You might be capable of being the best chef or tennis player in the world but would never know unless you accepted that you could possibly fail, and tried anyway. The fear of failure revokes the possibility of failing, and also revokes any chances of success.
Benefits of Failure
Failure is a sign from the universe to evaluate and introduce change to find a different way to achieve your goals. Society teaches us that failure is a negative outcome which should be avoided at all costs, which causes us to fear the possibility of taking a risk. Fear has the ability to stop many people from even attempting to reach a goal. Do not let the fear of failure stop you from trying. If you fail, you will get up and try again. It is never too late to turn your life around. It doesn’t mean you have to stay in the cycle, you just have to accept that failure is a part of life that is necessary for multiple reasons. Failure leads to success if you understand that failing is a sign to reevaluate and continue on.
1. You’ll Learn
You learn more from failure than from succeeding. Trying and failing teaches you more about yourself and what you want to do in life. Failing will teach you what you can change in order to get closer to the end goal, and how strong you truly are.
2. Build Resilience
You will develop a stronger mindset through failure that propels you through life. Failure aids in mental toughness and resilience, which makes you a stronger individual overall. Once you get through failure, you’ll unlock resilience you never knew you had.
3. Reach a necessary stepping stone
Sometimes failure is a necessary stepping stone in your path to success. Without failure, you might not realize what needs to change in order to reach your full potential. Failure is a key component that can propel you toward your goal.
4. Grow
No matter what type of failure you endure, you will emerge from the situation stronger. You will grow as a person by testing your mental strength and willingness to succeed. Failure expands the way you think. Your problem solving and critical thinking skills will improve.
5. Motivation
Failure may provide you the motivation you need to get to the finish line. If you are close to a goal or put in a lot of time and effort, failure may just teach you that you were close enough to keep trying. Click here for motivation tips.
6. Fight or Flight
Putting yourself in situations that could possibly fail triggers a human response called “fight or flight”. The more you experience this feeling, you are more capable of responding in a productive way. Experiencing this feeling shows you that the scenario you imagined wasn’t all that bad and you were capable of overcoming it, so in the future you’ll be more likely to take risks and steps toward your goals.
How to Recover
1. Block Out Negativity
When you begin to work towards a goal, you’ll notice some people doubt your success. This is very common due to social norms and other factors. If you reach a roadblock, those people will celebrate your failure. This can be damaging to your journey. Only surround yourself with people who genuinely support your endeavors, and block out those who do not.
2. Understand the Meaning of Failure
Failing is not a sign to give up. This is a sign that you must change your path in order to get where you want to go. Imagine a tree is blocking the road to your house. Instead of buying a new house and starting over in life, you find a way to remove the tree, or take a different route. Road blocks in life just mean you need an alternate way to get to the goal. If you encounter a failure, it means you had the courage to try and achieve something. A failure isn’t the end of the road, but a road block that must be overcome.
3. Reassess
After understanding the meaning of your failure, you must recreate a pathway to get to your goal. Reassess your original plan and why it failed. You may have to backtrack or create a new game plan, learn from your mistakes and recenter yourself.
4. Create a Plan
Creating a new plan is the most important step of recovering from failure. The original plan was flawed in a way that stopped you from getting to the finish line. You may have to go back a few steps, or start from the beginning and find a different approach to avoid hitting the same roadblock. Every failure leads to success if you reroute to the same destination.
5. Move Forward
If you constantly think about the past, it is impossible to move forward. Failure is a normal part of life when you try new things, and everyone experiences it at some point. Michael Jordan, Elvis, and J.K. Rowling are perfect examples of this. If these icons were to give up after their first failure they would never know what they were capable of. Accepting and assessing failure is necessary to avoid failing in the same way twice, but becoming overwhelmed by thoughts of failure will keep you in a negative mindset. Realize what went wrong, and move forward.
6. Don’t Quit
Giving up is a common way to react to failure. Most people may think because they failed, the goal is impossible and they themselves are a failure. This is only true if you choose to quit. Every successful person has thought of giving up at least once. Giving up is the easiest option to avoid dealing with real emotions. It is much more difficult to continue trying at something until you finally achieve success, which makes this success feel even better.
7. Trust the Process
Realize your path and journey in life is unique and happening just as its supposed to. If you believe that everything happens for a reason, then failure is much easier to understand. If you accept that failure is part of your journey to where you need to be, you will have more trust in yourself and your decisions. The universe works in many ways to teach us lessons and help us become the best version of ourselves.
No matter what you believe in, there is some force guiding us through life. Whether it be an energy or a being, everything seems to work out just how it is supposed to. People are placed into your life for a purpose, situations are presented in life to build you into the person that you’re meant to be. Many think that failure is a sign to give up, but really, failure is a sign to keep going; just in a different way than you were before. If you persevere, you’ll realize that failure leads to success.
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